# Texans Take Action NOW! WE invite the rest of America to join us!



## Cigar Diva (May 14, 2007)

Texas retail tobacconists have united in an effort thwart the Federal Government's attempt to put B&M's out of business in one fail swoop with the tax on premium cigar along with all other tobacco products coupled with a "FLOOR TAX".

Monday September 24, 2007, we would like to put together an all out push to CALL YOUR legislators. Faxes and emails are great, but please CALL them.

The Texas Cigar Merchants Association asks that every person that opposes this tax increase, call their legislators on this day.

Our legislators will likely vote on the tax increase next week and we need to hit them now!

Contact info and talking points are below.

You can find your legislators phone number at:
http://capwiz.com/rtda/directory/congdir.tt

There are many more great references on this site. Check it out.

The following is the information distributed by the
Texas Cigar Merchants Association.

Here are tips for leaving messages: 
** Telephone calls are usually taken by a staff member, not the member 
** of Congress. Ask to speak with the aide who handles SCHIP or 
***H.R. 3162 / S.976

** After identifying yourself, tell the aide you would like to leave 
***a brief message, such as: "Please tell Senator/Representative (Name) 
***that I oppose the Cigar taxes associated with SCHIP Legislation 
***(H.R. 3162 / S. 976)."

** You will also want to add points from the attached talking points 
***list stating reasons for your opposition to the bill.

Ask for your senators' or representative's position on the bill.* You should also request a written response to your telephone call.

Talking Points:

Opposing the Bill to Expand SCHIP:
·****If increasing SCHIP funding is truly justified, can not the funds be found elsewhere in a federal budget of some $2,900,000,000,000?* Find it by ceasing the funding for obsolete technologies, eliminating subsidies for inefficient businesses, shrinking the welfare state (of which SCHIP is part of some 60 federal financial aid assistance programs (that replaced the "welfare" program), not building bridges to nowhere, and in short, targeting general waste and mismanagement rather than instituting yet another unfair, undeserved and unnecessary tax.
·******* It is irresponsible to base funding for a program like SCHIP's on a shrinking and already over-burdened industry like tobacco.* While SCHIP's needs will grow exponentially, what will Congress do when tobacco tax revenues inevitably shrink due to illegal consumption and growth in the black market created by Congress?* The floor tax on this bill will effectively put 97% of small tobacconists out of business (and thus SCHIP's funding, too)?
·******* It is not Congress' responsibility to subsidize health care or insurance or anything except "PROVIDE FOR THE COMMON DEFENSE".* Our boarders are our common defense. The Founders did not intend government to subsidize any businesses much less already highly profitable businesses such as health care. 
·******* It is NOT Congress' responsibility to legislate morality to its citizens, either.* If the goal in taxing tobacco is to promote healthier lifestyles, then where will this line of thinking end?** Why not subsidize health club memberships, too?* Mandate limitations on the amount of TV viewed per person per day per household?* Raise taxes on alcohol, fast foods (that are causing the majority of the health care problems among the targeted recipients of SCHIPS), candy, soft drinks, butter, red meat?* Why not tax overweight people by the pound? Better yet, issue ALL Americans, TO EXCLUDE people in the U.S. illegally (after all, they have more rights than American citizens) cards that register each persons caloric intake and once a person has met the government determined caloric intake, the American will not be allowed to purchase or consume anything until the next day. The government SHOULD give terrorists unfettered access to our country to blow up as many Americans as they can, but God forbid I be able to smoke tobacco, a legal product, in my business, that sells the legal product.
·******* The American people will benefit more greatly from the Congress' efforts to control and reduce the exorbitant costs of health care than by the government's effort to throw more taxes at it.* Runaway costs are, after all, what drive up insurance premiums and cause common Americans to have to give up health coverage and risk the health of their families in the first place.* 
·******* Congress should investigate the relationship between the hospitals, insurance companies and trial-lawyers.* After all, bureaucracy, mismanagement, red tape, redundancy, unnecessary tests, frivolous lawsuits and malpractice insurance are major causes for the spiraling cost of private health insurance.* 
**
Opposing Further Tobacco Taxes: 
·******* The tobacco industry markets legal products enjoyed by millions of American adults.* Still, the industry is the most taxed, regulated, litigated, researched and maligned industry in America.* Great prejudice and segregation already exists against tobacco and the proposed taxes are simply punitive and unfair.
·******* The proposed tobacco tax is regressive in nature.* The greatest part of its costs will be borne by those whom the bill is designed to help - the poor, uneducated and disenfranchised who smoke cigarettes in the greatest numbers.* 
·******* An already burgeoning black market for tobacco products will be encouraged and emboldened.* Enforcement of these new taxes will cause many otherwise law-biding consumers to seek means to avert higher costs by going outside legal means.* This will not only reduce tax revenues but feed a growing black market enriching and empowering those already organized to accommodate it.

·****The proposed tobacco tax is regressive in nature.* The greatest part of its costs will be borne by those whom the bill is designed to help - the poor, uneducated and disenfranchised who smoke cigarettes in the greatest numbers.* 
·******* When federal excise taxes are increased, so is the manufacturer's price in order to reflect both the tax increase and the application of his profit margin to the higher base. In a ripple effect, the states then levy their excise taxes on the increased value of the product. Distributors and retailers include those taxes in their prices, add their profit margins and then pass the increased costs on to the consumer. Then state and local sales taxes also are levied on the higher prices. As a result, the retail price of cigars will increase 2 to 3 times over current prices.
·******* As almost all hand-rolled cigars and nearly all the raw material for them come from the Caribbean and Central America, is not the tax on hand-rolled cigars a tariff on the import of goods unique to the economies of this region and a violation of DR-CAFTA (The Dominican Republic - Central American Free Trade Agreement)?
·******* Hand-rolled cigars, unlike other tobacco products, are excessively labor intensive and provide wide-spread employment for hundreds of thousands in the Caribbean and Central America.* During its development, a hand-rolled cigar, or its raw components, go through some 300 hands before it reaches the US.* Including dependents, around 3.5 million people count on this industry for their economic security.* 
·******* Cigar tobacco is unique in how it is planted, cultivated, harvested and processed and the manufacture of hand-rolled cigars is a trade skill not easily learned or transferred.* With the expected reduction in demand of hand-rolled cigars, as a result of the proposed tax, many will find themselves unemployable outside the industry and forced to seek other means of survival.* Do we want to cause havoc in other countries for the benefit of a few in our own?* Will this help our immigration concerns?

Arguing for a Distinction Between Hand-rolled Cigars and Cigarettes: 
·******* Besides cigarette smokers, tobacco enthusiasts of all kinds, and specifically cigar enthusiasts, are being unjustly punished.* It is akin to dolphins being caught in the tuna nets - it is unfortunate and it is unnecessary.
·******** Hand-rolled cigars in the tobacco industry are comparable to fine wines in the alcohol industry.* Each are enjoyed by passionate enthusiasts, are oriented towards sophisticated consumers (older with higher educations and incomes), are marketed and priced for adult consumption and, it can be argued, are beneficial to one's health when used in moderation (*see notes below for reasons for this last argument).

1) the unique and slow method with which cigar tobacco is processed and aged which removes great quantities of the naturally harsh elements of tobacco such as nicotine, tar, ammonia and acids 
2) the all-natural element of hand-rolled cigars (versus cigarettes) which avoids the addition of any man-made additives not present when the leaves were harvested 
3) the understanding that cigars are generally only inhaled by accident 
4) the moderate rate with which cigars are usually enjoyed - an average consumer smokes around one per day 
5) the lack of an addictive quality to cigars due much to the low level of nicotine to which a smoker is exposed as a result of all the points made above 
6) and, a very important point, the slow, reflective, relaxing manner in which they are traditionally experienced which slows heart-rates, relieves stress and reduces anxiety. 
·******* Far smaller than the wine industry (and the cigarette industry), there is neither great profit nor great need to overly tax this cottage industry.* The additional taxes earned are limited and are more than off-set by the loss in business, revenue, state and local taxes, and jobs.* Though the revenues will be small, the impact of the taxes will be greatest in the industry of hand-rolled cigars.
·******* Unlike the elasticity of cigarettes, beer or gasoline, cigars are inelastic and prone to great swings in demand according to price.* In other words, while a 20% increase in the price of cigarettes may result in only a 2% decrease in sales, a 20% increase in the price of a hand-rolled cigar may result in a 40% decrease in sales.
·******* Hand-rolled cigars enjoy a unique place in American culture, again like wine, that requires shops and shop keepers to market the products, inform and educate consumers and provide consumers areas to commune with and enjoy other enthusiasts.* This tax will unfairly strain the resources of shop keepers who provide these required services and damage the uniquely American cigar culture.
·******* By raising the ceiling of the premium cigar tax more than 6,000% as the Senate wants, or even 2,000% as the House wants, Congress is signing the death warrant for many in the industry.* Farmers, processors, manufacturers, importers, distributors, wholesalers and retailers will all suffer!

And, for future reference, Talking Points Opposing Smoking Bans:

·******* Tobacco is legal and enjoyed by millions of American adults who have a right to its enjoyment in peace and to protection against discrimination.* Allowing a product to be sold, purchased, taxed, distributed and advertised but not consumed freely in places licensed and willing to permit it defies logic in a free and open American economy.* 
·******* Our country is based on and has grown strong, versatile and resilient from the principle of free and open markets as well as the sanctity and protection of private property.* Smoking bans violate both of these strongly held beliefs and weaken our markets as well as compromise the values of properties and businesses.
·******* Assuming legality, unless the government is materially invested in a business and unless the business has a means to conceal material health hazards from the public, government, at any level, does not have jurisdiction over the private matters and decisions of private property and business owners.
·******* In extreme cases when eminent domain, condemnation or an easement must be declared that materially affects a property or business owner, compensation is offered to offset the adverse financial affects of the declaration.* Should not the same compensation be expected when a government mandated smoking ban adversely affects one's business?
·******* While we must trust government to ensure our restaurants are clean, our food, water* and drugs are safe and our highways, bridges and roads are in good repair, we need only our noses and/or eyes to determine whether or not an establishment is smoke-free and whether or not we will patronize it.* 
·******* Left alone, the free market will always decide the validity of a business and find equilibrium between opposing ideas.* If it is the markets wish that the world to be smoke-free, then in time, this will happen.* The market, however, must be left to function as it always has - without the intervention of the government.
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## cory76044 (May 13, 2007)

Thanks for making this easy for us. That looks like someone did alot of work so alot of us dont have to. Thank You!!


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## tx_tuff (Jun 16, 2007)

Done, thanks for putting everything together for us!


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## bobaganoosh (Sep 20, 2007)

Your work is greatly apprieciated. I definitely will be making good use of your information. Thank You.


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## terrasco-cl (Mar 4, 2007)

Thanks! Senator Hutchinson really needs a wake up call.


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## tobacmon (May 17, 2007)

I'm already ON IT! Thanks


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